Poll: How did the Seahawks perform against Carolina?

The Times is asking readers tonight to vote on how they think the Seahawks performed in the 12-7 win over Carolina today.

The choices are essentially better, worse or as you expected.

I’d go with as I expected. While I picked Seattle to win 21-13, I had written I thought it’d be a pretty hard-fought game but the Seahawks would pull away late. That’s sort of what happened, though obviously the big play 0n the fumble was a huge turning point.

If there is one area of concern after this one it is the running game and the protection from the offensive line.

Everyone on the line is healthy and the line has been together throughout camp. No one doubts that Carolina has a good front seven. But as Pete Carroll said afterward, they thought they could do better.

“We weren’t getting much movement and I thought they played very active up front and were very difficult and we were just real disappointed in that,” Carroll said.

The one spot where Seattle tried some different things up front was left guard, where James Carpenter played a few series in each half in place of Paul McQuistan.

Otherwise, Seattle doesn’t have much experienced depth and the Seahawks are simply going to have to play better up front with some of the defenses they are playing in coming games, beginning next week against San Francisco.

Russell Wilson was sacked twice, and did his usual Houdini act to get away from a few others. The Seahawks got away with it today, but they won’t always.

What didn’t seem to be an issue with the running game was the play of the backs — Marshawn Lynch seemed fine (though he did have an early drop of a pass) and Robert Turbin had the key run late to set up the winning touchdown. Derrick Coleman also chipped in with three receptions, though he wasn’t out there a ton in blocking situations so it’s harder to assess that. Rookies Christine Michael and Spencer Ware didn’t play in an offensive situation (Michael was one of only two players on the roster not listed as playing, the other being backup QB Tarvaris Jackson — no indication he wasn’t healthy, so just the way it worked out apparently).

Given the high-profile of the position, there’s always nit-picking that can be done of Wilson. But a career-high passing yards in the face of that pressure makes it hard to legitimately quibble about much of anything.

And while the defense gave up one scoring drive, it’s also hard to quibble a lot with its play, either. Carolina had just 243 yards, and only two of eight drives went for longer than 39 yards — the TD and then the 72-yard march at the end that ended in the fumble and was keyed by 30
Seattle penalty yards.

If there’s another area of concern, it is the penalties —- another nine for 109 yards. Carroll has said time and again it is something they are working on and emphasizing. As with the protection, Seattle got away with it today, but that won’t always happen in the NFL.

None of it was real artistic, and with the 49ers now on tap, it may be pretty quickly set aside. But the Seahawks ultimately got the job done.